


Love or Its Antithesis

by Ride_Forever



Category: due South
Genre: M/M, Older Not Dead prompt-a-thon, Slashorific Writing Challenge, dS6D twice-monthly prompt challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-24
Updated: 2016-07-24
Packaged: 2018-07-24 19:50:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7520899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ride_Forever/pseuds/Ride_Forever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>According to the Victoria Metcalf Criminal Code, there is no statute of limitations on her love … or her hate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love or Its Antithesis

**Author's Note:**

> AN #1: This fic started with the [Slashorific comm](http://slashorific.livejournal.com/) prompt "the boy is mine". Then from the [Older Not Dead, Love for the Over 40's comm](http://older-not-dead.livejournal.com/) came the prompt "blame Canada" along with the theme "love and hate". Additionally came the prompt "antithesis" from the [dS6D Fanworks comm](http://ds6d-fanworks.livejournal.com/). In all three cases the claimed fandom was due South and the claimed pairing was Fraser/Kowalski.
> 
> AN #2: The poem _The Windhover_ by Gerard Manley Hopkins is quoted herein under the aegis of the American Fair Use Law and the Canadian Fair Dealing Law, and no copyright infringement is intended.
> 
> AN #3: TYK to my beta -- [ButterflyGhost](http://archiveofourown.org/users/ButterflyGhost/pseuds/ButterflyGhost) \-- for the efforts of her keen mind and sensitive heart -- across thousands of miles and possibly as many lifetimes.  
> =========================

_According to the Illinois Criminal Code 720 ILCS 5/3-5, 5/3-6, 5/3-7, there is no statute of limitations for first degree murder, attempt to commit first degree murder, second degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide, leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident involving death or personal injuries, failing to give information and render aid under the Illinois Vehicle Code, concealment of homicidal death, treason, arson, forgery, child pornography, or certain specified sexual conduct crimes in which DNA evidence is entered into a DNA database._ According to the Victoria Metcalf Criminal Code, there is no statute of limitations on her love … or her hate.

 

Ray has spent a lot of years living up in the Northwest Areas for love of Fraser, and finally he wants just a little bit of city life and warmer weather _now._ Later Ray will blame Canada Day, or rather blame himself, for getting Fraser to agree to a city trip, the trip to Ottawa for the Canada Day festivities. Rather like “Fraser’s tongue and electricity, not a good mix,” “Fraser and cities, not a good mix”. Bigger populations mean bigger chances of freakish happenings attracted by Fraser the freak-magnet.

So there’s Ray and Fraser at Bayward Market, with Ray about to briefly separate from Fraser and head over to the Beaver Tail pastry stand, saying “Oh no, Benton buddy, I’ll go over there by myself. I do not want to hear your dietary diatribe while I am eating that Beaver Tail … heh, I’ll bet you thought I didn’t know the word ‘diatribe’ … learned it special just for you.” 

Fraser looks a bit miffed, so Ray gives him a quick kiss to take some of the sting out of the remark, and then is off to acquire the high-sugar high-fat treat. He is unaware that he and Fraser have just caught the very dangerous attention of a pale-skinned woman with a tumble of salt-and-pepper curls.

Ray is licking some of the maple butter and cinnamon off his fingers when the woman approaches him. “I want to talk to you,” she says. Ray thinks she looks vaguely familiar and responds with “Um … sure.” He licks the last traces of the Beaver Tail off his hand and the woman stares for a moment at his fingers. 

“You know the name Ben Fraser.” She says it like it’s not a question, so Ray doesn’t – as Fraser would call it – prevaricate. “Yeah, I know the name,” he responds.

“You have attractive hands,” she murmurs. The non sequitur startles Ray, and he is even more startled when the woman says “I’ve seen that you know more about him than his name. Do you know what it’s like to have him take your fingers into his mouth?” 

“ _What the fuck_ ?!” Ray thinks … and then he realizes why the vague familiarity … realizes he saw her mugshot in the Vecchio file years ago. “Victoria Metcalf,” he says aloud … and she gives him a smile that sparkles like swirling snowflakes and is just as cold.

“Another name you know then,” she says with a satisfied air. “He’s talked about me to you. I was first. I’ll always be first to him. He will always be mine.”

“The hell he is, Metcalf! He’s …. ” Ray suddenly thinks of something Fraser used to say about Diefenbaker, gone now in old age but fondly remembered. “Fraser is his own wolf … he’s not to be owned. And as for you … I could bust you right now as a fugitive wanted for … " Ray stops in midsentence – no longer a police officer, but those old habits rise to the surface at moments of stress and this is certainly one.

“Are you a Mountie too?”

“No, but …. no! Citizen’s arrest!"

“Why don’t you have Ben arrest me?” Another incandescent smile from her, like arctic sunlight, radiance without warmth.

Ray doesn’t want Fraser to even see that Victoria is here, tries to think of some way to get her hauled off to a police station fast before Fraser comes looking for him.

“Did he ever tell you that he thought I had the most beautiful voice? That listening to my voice called him back from the brink of death? I’m sure you know what acute hearing he has – if I just raise my voice now …. "

Ray’s panicked expectation is that Victoria is going to call out Fraser’s name and that Fraser will answer; Ray is baffled at what she does say next.

“I caught this morning morning's minion, kingdom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding high there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing in his ecstasy!”

Ray’s bafflement and his alarm both skyrocket at the sound of Fraser’s voice responding “Then off, off forth on swing, as a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding stirred for a bird, – the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!” Then Victoria concludes it with “Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here buckle! And the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!”

Standing a few paces away from Victoria, Fraser’s attention is on her with a look both stricken and mesmerized as she says to him “It’s been a long time, Ben … too long …. " Ray hates hearing her say that name, and tries to override it by his own sharp exclamation of “Ben!” It works. The spell breaks. Fraser looks to Ray with an expression of gratitude and love, then turns back to Victoria and says “Never long enough to outlast the American or Canadian statute of limitations – you’ve committed crimes which have no statute of limitations ….”

A sudden swirl of tourists there to join in on the Canada Day celebrations move through between Fraser and Victoria, and in that moment of crowding movement Victoria makes her getaway.

EPILOGUE

Upon their return to their NWT home, an unsigned postcard awaits Fraser and Ray. It says “There is no statute of limitations on my love … or on its antithesis.”


End file.
